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In a pass play, receivers run along specific, predesigned paths that attack the “open grass” — or soft spots — in a defense. These paths are called “routes” and a carefully crafted mixture of them is called a “pass pattern” or “concept”.

The “9” is football’s most basic and most important pass route and, yet, it’s nothing more than a race to the end zone – or at least as far as the quarterback can throw.

Selling the nine is convincing a defensive back that he’s in that race every time a receiver releases from the line of scrimmage.

The nine — also called a “Go” or “Fly” route — is basically a straight line. As such, it serves as the stem for many other pass routes a receiver can run. By stem, we refer to another straight line, the one a receiver runs when he escapes the line of scrimmage and races to the breakpoint of his assigned route.

If a receiver can fool a defensive back into thinking he’s going deep, then the underneath routes that break off the nine open up. Separation from the defender covering him – the goal of any receiver – becomes easier.

The route gets its name from the simple fact that in most passing trees, it is the number “9” route. A passing tree is a diagram of the different pass routes assigned to specific receiver position. The nine acts as the trunk of the tree and the routes breaking off it look like the limbs.